For our March/April 2010 issue, reporter Justine Sharrockgot up close and personal with Oath Keepers, a fast-growing "patriot" group that recruits active-duty soldiers, police, and veterans to resist what its members consider an increasingly tyrannical government. Members reaffirm their service oath to uphold the Constitution and further vow to disobey any orders they deem illegal or unconstitutional. Unveiled last April, the group has already established itself as a hub within the larger anti-Obama movement, attracting a wide range of followers from politicians to Tea Partiers to militia enthusiasts—not to mention alienated soldiers like Private 1st Class Lee Pray, above. The group has also drawn praise from a who's who of right-wing cable hosts including Glenn Beck. (Bill O'Reilly proved a tougher audience.) In this slideshow, we look more closely at some of the group's connections.

Committees of Safety, which aims to boost state militia participation, orchestrated Oath Keepers' April 19, 2009, unveiling at the village green in Lexington, Massachusetts. (Committees of Safety founder Walter Reddy, an Oath Keeper himself, has claimed that the Oklahoma City bombing was orchestrated by the federal government.) There, on the anniversary of the first battle of the American Revolution, Oath Keepers founder Rhodes, told a crowd of some 400 die-hard patriot types that it was time to "wake up." You "need to be alert and aware to the reality of how close we are to having our constitutional republic destroyed," he implored them. Rhodes, a lawyer, is a vigorous defender of constitutional militias; he also provided his services pro bono to Arkansas militia leader Captain Wayne Fincher in a case involving illegal-gun charges.